A Lonely Spirit in a Lost Clan
by Autumn Leaf Ninja
Summary: When a warrior that is born to a ShadowClan mother and a WindClan father has an overly ambitious Clan leader that aspires to "perfect" their Clan, he is at a high risk of termination, even though all he ever did was be alive and live his life.


_Braveshine_? As if. If ShadowClan thinks that by giving their cats empowering names they can encourage them to be proud warriors of the dark Clan, they're horribly, horribly wrong. _Braveshine_, the half-blood tom with constant wavering loyalty, is the cat I am. _Braveshine_, the warrior who was left at the ShadowClan border as a young kit of five moons old because he was too much of a burden to his WindClan father, is who they say I am.

_Useless_, the word I've heard the others call me behind my back since I first arrived, is what they think I am. _Untrustworthy;_ that's what my wicked Clan leader, Creekstar, says I am. He's suspicious, ambitious, and power-hungry. He would do anything – and I do mean _anything_ – for power, and for ShadowClan to gain power. He was very influential as an ordinary warrior, so he won against his rival for deputyship, my mother, Hawkheart, several moons before she became involved with my father and had kits, and about five moons before the former leader, Nightstar, fell gravely ill and passed away.

Just to prove to every cat that I'm not simply being indignant about being called untrustworthy by my Clan leader and slandering him, I always refer to the story of my one littermate, who was murdered at three moons old, before he was old enough to know how to fight for himself. Creekstar sent a ShadowClan patrol to retrieve me and my brother, two three-moon-old kits growing up in WindClan, when our parentage was revealed to him with the excuse that our mother is a ShadowClan warrior, so we should grow up to be ShadowClan warriors as well. It was probably the coldest leaf-bare I had ever experienced, I remember, when they took my brother. My father had tried protecting us, as some other WindClan warriors did, I was told, but one of us was taken. Needless to say, my innocent brother ended up dead from the brutal cold of that leaf-bare when they stole him away. Having been only three moons old at the time myself, I know the full story from my father, who had given me to ShadowClan because it was a risk to the safety of his fellow WindClan cats for me to stay in WindClan with him.

As I am now, I don't know what to feel about being given to ShadowClan. I suppose I _understand_ why my father did what he did, but I just feel in my heart that I would have been happier in WindClan. Lately ShadowClan has become increasingly… _dark_. For instance, Creekstar has been more aggressive and impatient with his cats, and he's insisted on a massive increase in the amount of time each apprentice spends training (specifically for battles). Whether it's paranoia or madness that has caused such changes, it's starting to scare other cats. At a Gathering recently, in a conversation with other young warriors from different Clans, my Clan leader was brought up and they started expressing their fears of him becoming "the new Brokenstar".

Every cat in our Clan – and in _every_ Clan, for that matter – knew the dark, twisted tales of Brokenstar's reign over ShadowClan, and cats were terrified by the realization that the current ShadowClan leader was becoming more and more like the Brokenstar that we had all known through personal experience or elders' tales. However, the cats with such fears are more prominent in other Clans, as many cats in ShadowClan are blinded by his speeches that promise power and more territory. Creekstar is also known for his abhorrence of cats born with mixed blood, such as me. He preaches that it is the most distasteful way for us to taint our pure ShadowClan blood, and that it is the highest form of disloyalty and disrespect for Clan pride and the warrior code. And before I forget to mention this, my mother was slaughtered at Creekstar's command when I had arrived at camp before my eyes, just for having kitted me. I was heartbroken for a long time, blaming myself for being born even though I didn't even get a chance to know my mother.

I woke to a shout one morning before dawn, and that was the morning when everything changed. "All ShadowClan cats, gather here!" Creekstar called, being the type of leader who would call the Clan to gather using whatever phrase he wished. The sleepy cats stumbled into the clearing, many of them blinking sleep out of their eyes as they found a spot to stand around their leader.

"Now, if you're wondering why I called you together today, it's because things are going to change drastically in our Clan. All the cats living in the elders' den come forth." The elders hesitantly stepped to the front of the crowd and stood in a smaller crowd before the ShadowClan leader. "You're all no longer of use to our Clan. You don't hunt or fight for yourselves, and you're much too old for precious prey to be wasted on you. Please leave immediately."

For several heartbeats, there was complete silence. Then the cries of outrage broke out, and complaints and arguments filled the camp's clearing. "Do you dare defy my orders?" roared Creekstar, snarling at his Clan. "This is all to better our Clan. Just think about it: You'll have plenty of extra prey to eat without the elders here, and no cat will have to worry about removing their ticks and fleas," he reasoned. "It's the perfect strategy towards improvement of the Clan."

Uncertain mumbles then filled the air in response to his excuses for banishing the elders. I was disgusted by Creekstar's methods of "achieving perfection in the Clan", and saddened by the sight of the elders' desperate expressions. After all, they would probably die if they didn't have a Clan to take care of them.

"Also, in order to achieve further perfection, all half-bloods must also be removed." Every cat turned and stared at me. I was the _only_ cat currently in ShadowClan with blood from both ShadowClan and a different Clan. "And to ensure that our dear half-blood, Braveshine, doesn't move on to tell the other Clans of our territory expansion plans, we must eliminate him promptly. Remember that I can guarantee you more land and power over the other Clans."

With hungry looks in their eyes at the promise of power and prosperity, several of my Clan-mates chased after me as I turned tail and ran away from camp and ShadowClan. The last thing I can remember was crying out in pain as I was clawed at ferociously by my pursuers.

**That concludes my response to FunClan's "The New Brokenstar" challenge prompt. Braveshine, Creekstar, and the prompt were provided to me by Thistle, who also provided ShadowClan as the Clan I was to use in this. This is my first challenge completed for FunClan! :)**

_**Anyway**_**, I hope you liked it! Let me know what you think! :)**


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